Sey Coffee

Overview

Lance Schnorenberg and Tobin Polk — friends since dishwashing together at Espresso Vivace in Seattle, who share the same birthday — began roasting in a fourth-floor Bushwick loft in 2013 as Lofted Coffee, then rebranded to Sey after a legal challenge from California's Lofty Coffee and opened their Bushwick flagship at 18 Grattan in August 2017. Food & Wine named Sey the Best Coffee Shop in America, and the company runs a published-transparency, gratuity-free model with baristas paid $22/hour.

Known for

• Best Coffee Shop in America (Food & Wine)
• Gratuity-free hospitality with $22/hr barista wages
• Published per-coffee supply chain transparency including farm gate value
• Sold a $29 cup of Elida Estate Geisha Green Tip Washed
• Light, Nordic-style roasting on a Probat
• Cafe-front-with-glass-walled-roastery transparency layout

Why it matters

Sey put a stake in the ground that specialty coffee economics — both producer payments and barista wages — could be made fully transparent and humane without sacrificing quality. The Best Coffee Shop in America designation validated the bet, and the gratuity-included model became a reference point for the industry.

Production

head roaster

Liam Berg

roaster machine

Probat

cupping frequency

weekly Sunday/Monday cuppings of prior week's roasts and sample roasts

roastery location

Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY (behind glass wall of cafe)

Café

18 Grattan Street, Brooklyn, NY

Recognitions

• Best Coffee Shop in America (Food & Wine)

Sources

• https://www.seycoffee.com/blogs/news-events/sey-named-1-coffee-shop-in-america-by-food-wine
• https://sprudge.com/sey-coffee-bushwick-125183.html
• https://mastmarket.com/blogs/the-mast-journal/sey-it-beautifully
• https://bklyner.com/sey-coffee/
• https://typica.coffee/en/narratives/roasters/sey/
• https://okcoffee.tips/lance-schnorenberg/